ISSN: 2722-4198 Analyzing the Types of Speech Act Found in ...

Volume 2, Nomor 1, Tahun 2020

Islamic Manuscript of Linguistics and Humanity (IMLAH) UPT PengembanganBahasa UIN Imam Bonjol Padang

Available online at: https://ejournal.uinib.ac.id/jurnal/index.php/imlah ISSN: 2722-4198

44

Analyzing the Types of Speech Act Found in Teacher’s Oral

Interaction in the Learning Process

Sri Suci Suryawati1, Zughrofiyatun Najah

2, Arina Khuzaniar R.

3

1 Tarbiyah Faculty, RadenIntan Islamic State University

2 Theology Faculty, RadenIntan Islamic State University

3 TarbiyahFaculty, RadenIntan Islamic State University

<[email protected]>

<[email protected]> <[email protected]>

Abstract: The objective of this research is to find out what kinds of speech act were used

by the teacher. The researcher observed and recorded the teaching learning process. The

record was transcribed and analyzed based on Searle’s Classification of Speech Act. The

result showed that only four classification that are used in the record. They are

representative, directive, commissive and expressive. They also indicated that language

directive was the mainly category that appeared in teacher’s utterance to deliver question.

Key words: Speaking, Speech Act, Teacher’s interaction.

Abstrak: Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui jenis tindak tutur yang

digunakan oleh guru. Peneliti mengamati dan mencatat proses belajar mengajar. Catatan

itu ditranskripsikan dan dianalisis berdasarkan Klasifikasi Tindakan Pidato Searle. Hasil

penelitian menunjukkan hanya empat klasifikasi yang digunakan dalam pencatatan.

Mereka representatif, direktif, komisif dan ekspresif. Mereka juga menunjukkan bahwa

arahan bahasa adalah kategori utama yang muncul dalam ucapan guru untuk

menyampaikan pertanyaan.

Kata Kunci: speaking, tindak tutur, interaksi guru.

1. INTRODUCTION

Language is an inseparable part of our

everyday lives. It is the main tool used

to transmit messages, to communicate

ideas, thoughts and opinions. It situates

us in the society we live in; it is a social

affair which creates and further

determines our position in all kinds of

various social networks and

institutions.

The study of how teachers and

students use language in classroom is

important not only for teachers, but all

those concerned with the social

functions of education.1 Learners of all

languages tend to have difficulty

understanding the intended meaning

communicated by a speech act, or

producing a speech act using

appropriate language and manner in the

language being learned. Research has

found that classroom instruction on

speech acts can help learners to

improve their performance of speech

1 Jay L Lemke, Using Language in the Class

Room,( Oxford : Oxford University Press : 1989), p. 1

IMLAH: Islamic Manuscript of Linguistics and Humanity Volume 2, Nomor 1, Tahun 2020 ISSN: 2722-4198

45

acts and thus their interactions with

native speakers run well). To a great

extent, the language used by teachers

and students in classroom determines

what is learned and how learning takes

place. Teachers’ speech acts are

extremely important, not only for the

organization of the classroom but also

for the processes of acquisition. It is

important for organization and

management of the classroom because

it is through language (speech acts) the

teachers either succeed or fail to

implement their teaching plans. In term

of acquisition, teachers’ speech acts are

important because it is probably the

major source of comprehensible target

language input the leaner is likely to

receive. In Cullen’s term as quoted in

Celce-Murciathat the primary functions

of teachers talk (speech act) is to

support and enhance learning.2The

importance of pedagogical function of

teachers talk within the classroom

context is needed in order to view it as

genuine communication.

The role of the teachers’ speech

act and teachers-students interaction in

management of learning are very

important. The types of speech acts

mostly produced in the classroom

interaction were observed. Questions

are, as part of speech acts, extremely

important, and here the researcher

would like to monitor the types of

2 Marianne Celce-Murcia and Elite Olshtain,

Discourse and Context in Language Teaching. (London : Cambridge University Press, 2000), p.222

question the teacher asks, particularly

in term of teacher potential to stimulate

extended student responses. The aspect

of questioning behaviour worth looking

at is the use of display and referential

questions (Nunan, 1991: 194, Celce-

Murcia and Olshtain, 2000: 221-222;

Bearne et al. (ed.), 2003: 39; Long and

Richards (ed.), 1987: 332; Richards

and Nunan, 1997: 7, 9; Brown, 2001:

171). Display questions are those to

which we know the answer (for

instance, when we hold a book and ask,

‘Is this a book?’). Referential questions

or genuine questions (Trosborg, 1994:

159), on the other hand, are those to

which the asker does not know the

answer.

We perform speech acts when we

offer an apology, greeting, request,

complaint, invitation, compliment, or

refusal. In line with this, Searle also

stated that speaking or using a language

is performing speech acts, acts such as

making statements, giving commands,

askig questions, making promises and

so on.3Aspeech act is an utterance that

serves a function in communication. A

speech act might contain just one word,

as in "Sorry!" to perform an apology,

or several words or sentences: "I’m

sorry I forgot your birthday. I just let it

slip my mind." Speech acts include

real-life interactions and require not

only knowledge of the language but

also appropriate use of that language

within a given culture.

3 John R Searle, Speech Acts, (Oxford :

Oxford Univ. Press, 1969), p.16


46

A speech act is best described as

“in saying something, we do

something”, such as in describing

something (“It is snowing”), asking

questions (“Is it snowing?”), making a

request or giving an order (“Could you

pass the salt?”, “Drop your weapon or

I’ll shoot you!”), or making a promise

(“I promise I’ll give it back”)4.

Schiffrin proposes that “the speech act

is the basic unit of communication5.

We really communicate our ideas,

feeling, intentions etc. through our

utterances we made. Searle places the

speech act at the center of study of

language, meaning, and

communication: he proposes that: “the

basic unit of human communication is

the illocutionary act”6.

This study more directly focuses

on interaction in the classroom namely

teacher’s interactions. Pedagogically

this study hopefully contributes to

education especially in teaching and

learning. The description of speech acts

can be methodologically useful for the

teachers. It will contribute to the study

and the teaching of English. This study

hopefully becomes a reflection ‘tool’

for every teacher to observe their own

teaching executed so far.

Through observing a (language)

class, the researcher as well as observer

gains the chance to put the ideas about

teaching into practice, to examine how

4 Ibid, p.17

5 Deborah Schiffrin, Approaches to

Discourse, (Blackwell : Cambridge, MA & Oxford, 1994), p.57.

6 Ibid,, p.1

the teaching and learning activity

works with students in error correction

or how to treat errors. It gives the

researcher and or observer ideas about

what to do next in the researcher or

observer own classroom besides

gaining an invaluable research

experience. Through analyzing a

(language) class it gives the researcher

or observer many different views of

teaching. It is not only to look at the

content of the lesson but it makes the

observer and or researcher aware of

‘how’ the lesson is taught, what the

observed teacher and students are

doing, and what media are used.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

The Concept of Speaking

Speaking is the most important skill in

language teaching. It’s almost

impossible to have true mastery of a

language without actually speaking it7.

It is the skill of a speaker to

communicate information to a listener

or a group of listeners. Speaking is a

process sending message from

someone to second person. So, in

speaking process needed at least two

people, one as a speaker who produces

information and the other as a listener

who receives information.

Speaking is one of language skill

which is very important to be mastered

by students in order to be good

7 Michelle Maxom, Teaching English as a

Foreign Language For Dummies, (Chichester : John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2009), p. 183


47

communicator. Thornbury says that

speaking is so much a part of daily life

that we take in for granted.8

The

average person produces tens of

thousands of words a day, although

some people like auctioneers or

politicians may produce even more

than that. In addition, Brown states that

speaking is a productive skill that can

be directly and empirically observed9.

It means that the words who produced

by someone in a circle of community

can be understood each other easily

without need a long time.

Based on the terms of speaking

before, it can be inferred that speaking

skill is the productive skill in language

teaching that can be directly and

empirically observed.

Definition of Speech Acts

Speech act is a speech that is the

functional unit in communication10

. In

speech act theory put forward by the

two language philosopher named John

Austin and John Searle in the 1960s.

According to the theory, whenever a

speaker utters a sentence, he is trying to

do things with words (the sentence) it.

According to the terms of Austin, "By

saying something we do something"11

.

8 Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Speaking,

(Harlow : Longman, 2005), p.1 9 H. Douglas Brown, Language Assessment

Principle and Classroom Practices, (New York : Pearson Education, 2004), p.140

10 Jack C Richard; Platt, John; dan Platt,

Heidi,. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and AppliedLinguistics, (England : Longman, 1993), p.342

11 J.L Austin, How to Do Things with Word,

(Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1965), p.94

A judge who says "I hereby condemn

you to prison for five years" is taking

action to punish the defendant; the

words spoken by the conviction of the

accused judge’s marks. The defendant

will not go to jail without a word from

the judges.12

A speech act is an utterance that

has function in communication. We do

speech acts when we offer an apology,

greeting, request, complaint, invitation,

compliment, or refusal. A speech act

might contain just one word, as in

"Sorry!" to perform an apology, or

several words or sentences: “I’m sorry

I forgot your birthday. I just let it slip

my mind.” Speech acts include real-

life interactions and require not only

knowledge of the language but also

appropriate use of that language within

a given culture.

Here are some examples of

speech acts we use or hear every day:

Complaint : “I’ve already been waiting

two weeks for the watch,

and I was told it would be

delivered within a week.”

Invitation : “Come on, come to my

birthday party!”

Greeting : “Hi, Eric. How’s life?”

Request : “Could you take me that

pen, please?”

Some speech acts, however, are not

primarily acts of communication and

have the function of affecting

institutional states of affairs. They can

12

Herbert H. Clark and Clark Eve V, Psychology of Language,( New York : Hartcourt Brace Javanivich, Inc, 1977), p.26


48

do so in either of two ways. Some

officially judge something to be the

case, and others actually make

something the case. Those of the first

kind include judges' rulings; referees'

decisions etc, and the latter include

firing, appointing etc. Acts of both

kinds can be performed only in certain

ways under certain circumstances by

those in certain institutional or social

positions. The theory of speech acts

aims to do justice to the fact that even

though words (phrases, sentences)

encode information, people do more

things with words than convey

information and that when people do

convey information, they often convey

more than their words encode.

Although the focus of Speech Act

Theory has been on utterances,

especially those made in conversational

and other face-to-face situations, the

phrase 'speech act' should be taken as a

generic term for any sort of language

use, oral or otherwise.

Speech acts, whatever the

medium of their performance, fall

under the broad category of intentional

action, with which they share certain

general features. An especially

pertinent feature is that when one acts

intentionally, generally one has a set of

nested intentions.

For instance, having arrived

home without one's keys, one might

push a button with the intention not just

of pushing the button but of ringing a

bell, arousing one’s spouse and,

ultimately, getting into one's house.

Classifications of Speech Acts

by Searle

Searle (1969) classified speech acts

as13

:

a. Representative or Assertive

Representative or assertive is an

illocutionary act that commits a

speaker to the truth of the expressed

proposition. The acts are stating,

claiming, hypothesizing, describing,

telling, insisting, suggesting, asserting

that something is the case.

Example:

Stating : staff and VIP permitted here

b. Directive

Directive is an illocutionary act that for

getting the addressee to do something

by responding to an utterance or by

performing some physical actions.

The acts are ordering,

commanding, defying, advising,

asking, begging, challenging, daring,

demanding, forbidding, insisting,

inviting, permitting, recommending,

requesting, suggesting, etc.

Example:

Command : Close the door please!!!

Forbid, Prohibit : Don’t close the door!!!

Don’t go to the party!

c. Commisive

Commisive is an illocutionary act that

the speakers use to commit themselves

to some future action. The acts are

committing, guaranteeing, offering,

13

John R Searle, Speech Acts, (Oxford : Oxford Univ. Press, 1969), p.12

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposition


49

promising, refusing, threatening,

volunteering, vowing, threatening,

intending, vowing to do or to refrain

from doing something.

Example:

Promising : We promise to give you much

money.

Vowing : I will be the best husband in

your life my darling.

d. Expressive

Expressive is an illocutionary act that

speakers feeling and attitudes toward

events or affairs. The acts are

congratulating, thanking, deploring,

condoling, welcoming, apologizing.

Example:

Condoling : I am sorry to hear that.

Congratulating : Hey Bro, congrats for

your success.

e. Declaration

Declaration is an illocutionary act that

brings into existence the state of affairs

to which it refers. The speaker brings

about a change in the word by uttering

an Illocutionary act. The acts are

blessing, firing, baptizing, bidding,

passing sentence, excommunicating,

marriage, arresting, approving, naming,

etc.

Example:

Naming : I named my baby Amanda.

By knowing those classifications it

hopes we can generate our knowledge

about the speech act and it scopes. It

helps us in placing which one belongs

to ones and others.

3. METHOD

The method of the research involved a

recorded. It was observed then

transcribed and analyzed by the

researcher. The researcher observed the

record and transcribed it and then

analyzed it to know the kinds of speech

act in the record. The data was

analyzed based on Searle’s

classification. In this research, the

researcher used descriptive qualitative

research. The subject of this research

was is an English teacher at SMP N 21

Bandar Lampung. The total of English

teacher there are 4. In terms of the

perception of qualitative research, non-

probability sampling tends of be a

typical. One of the non-probability

samplings was purposive sampling;

sometimes it can be called judgmental

sampling. Then, to select the sample as

the source of the data, the researcher

used purposive sampling technique.

Purposive sampling was different from

convenience sampling in that

researcher do not simply study

whoever is available but rather use

their judgment to select a sample that

they believe, based on prior

information, will provide the data they

need. In order to get the data, the

researcher used record video. The

record took in 2 meetings 2x40

minutes.

The recording was observed and

then transcribed by the researcher. In


50

doing the transcription, the researcher

paid attention to the issue of speech act

practiced by the teacher and took note

on them. The researcher listened to the

record several times to get more valid

data. Afterwards, the researcher

classified and analyzed the data based

on Searle’s Classification of Speech

Act.

4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The researcher had conducted the

research at SMP N 20 Bandar

Lampung. The subject of this research

was an English teacher there. The tool

of this research was record. After

observing, the teacher transcript the

record then analyzed it based on

Searle’s classification, the researcher

had found that some types of speech

act are appeared in the record. It can be

seen in the table below:

Table 1 Speech Act Classification

Classificatio

n

Rep

resent

Directiv

e

Com

misiv

e

Expressiv

e

Declaratio

n

Total 154 181 4 16 -

Based on the table before, in this

research, the researcher analyzed the

teacher’s oral interaction recording.

Here is the further information based

on the table:

a. Representative or Assertive

Representative or assertive is an

illocutionary act that commits a

speaker to the truth of the expressed

proposition. The acts are stating,

claiming, hypothesizing, describing,

telling, insisting, suggesting, asserting

that something is the case.

Example:

Stating : staff and VIP permitted here

In this research, the researcher has

found154 teacher’s utterances that

belong to representative. In this case,

the examples of the utterances are:

Suggestion : “I would like to tell you

about how to make fried

noodle.”

Description : “Ingat tujuan dari procedure

text, how to make

something, untuk

memberitahu pendengar

untuk membuat sesuatu/

melakukan sesuatu.”

Suggestion : “Jadi kalo kalian

menyebutkannya cepat

procedurenya, bahan-

bahannya nanti tujuannya

gak sampe.”

Those are the example of teacher

utterances that belong to representative.

Actually, these utterances happened for

correcting the students’ utterances and

giving further information about the

material that they discussed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposition


51

b. Directive

Directive is an illocutionary act that for

getting the addressee to do something

by responding to an utterance or by

performing some physical actions.

The acts are ordering,

commanding, defying, advising,

asking, begging, challenging, daring,

demanding, forbidding, insisting,

inviting, permitting, recommending,

requesting, suggesting, etc.

Example:

Command : Close the door please!!!

Forbid, Prohibit : Don’t close the door!!!

Don’t go to the party!


found 181 teachers’ utterances that

belong to directive. Here are the

examples of teacher’s utterances that

belong to directive:

Question : “Who doesn’t come today?”

Question : “What the reason?”

Question : “Are you ready to practice

procedure text??”

Question : “Who is to be the first to

present procedure text?”

Those are the example of teacher’s

utterances. In this case, it’s also

indicated that directive is the common

used. The teacher often used directive

especially for delivering question to the

teacher to get the respond or

information from the students in

teaching learning process.

c. Commisive

Commisive is an illocutionary act that

the speakers use to commit themselves

to some future action. The acts are

committing, guaranteeing, offering,

promising, refusing, threatening,

volunteering, vowing, threatening,

intending, vowing to do or to refrain

from doing something.

Example:

Promising : We promise to give you much

money.

Vowing : I will be the best husband in

your life my darling.


found 4 utterances that belong to

commisive. Here are the teachers’

utterances:

Offering : “Terserah kamu.”

Promising : “Agung hari sabtu ya gung

tanggal 21, ya.”

Promising : “Si agungtanggal 21 inget.”

Promising : “Miko kamu sabtu gak jadi,

Gusti, Dela juga.”

Those are the teacher’s utterances of

commisive of the teachers offering and

promising the students.

d. Expressive

Expressive is an illocutionary act that

speakers feeling and attitudes toward

events or affairs. The acts are

congratulating, thanking, deploring,

condoling, welcoming, apologizing.


52

Example:

Condoling : I am sorry to hear that.

Congratulating : Hey Bro, congrats for

your success.

In this research the researcher has

found 16 utterances that belong to

expressive. Here are the examples of

the utterances:

Greeting : “Good Morning”

Thanking : Very good, thank you.

Complaining : “Kan ini tugasnya di

rumah, jadi di sekolah

udah siap untuk maju.”

Those are the examples of teacher’s

utterances that belong to expressive.

The teacher used greeting to greet the

students for opening the teaching

learning process. Thanking is used by

the teacher to thank after the students

asked the teacher. Complaining is

common used by the teacher when the

students not do what the teacher asked

to them.

e. Declaration

Declaration is an illocutionary act that

brings into existence the state of affairs

to which it refers. The speaker brings

about a change in the word by uttering

an Illocutionary act. The acts are

blessing, firing, baptizing, bidding,

passing sentence, excommunicating,

marriage, arresting, approving, naming,

etc.

Example:

Naming : I named my baby Amanda.

In this research, the researcher has not

found utterances that belong to

declaration. Declaration is common

used for blessing, firing, baptizing,

bidding, passing sentence,

excommunicating, marriage, arresting,

approving, naming, etc.

5. CONCLUSION

The analysis shows that only four

classification of speech act that are

found in the teacher’s utterances. Those

are representative, directive,

commisive and expressive. In this case,

directive is the common speech act

category that used by the teacher for

delivering question to the students in

the teaching learning process in the

class to build an interaction among

them.

The researcher suggest to the

next researcher to conduct a deeper

research in it. Another expert’s

classification is needed to use in order

to compare and get better knowledge of

speech act from another classification.

6. REFERENCES

Austin, J.L. 1965. How to Do Things

with Word. Oxford: Oxford University

Press.

Bach, Kent and Robert M. Harnish.

1979. Linguistic Communication and

Speech Acts. USA: The Massachusetts

Institute of Technology (MIT) Press.


53

Brown,H. Douglas.2004. Language

Assessment Principle and Classroom

Practices. New York, Pearson

Education.

Celce-Murcia, Marianne and Elite

Olshtain. 2000. Discourse and Context

in Language Teaching. USA:

Cambridge University Press.

Clark, Herbert H. dan Clark Eve V.

1977. Psychology of Language. New

York: Hartcourt Brace Javanivich, Inc.

Lemke, Jay L.1989. Using Language in

the Class Room. Micigan: Oxford

University Press.

Maxom, Michelle.2009. Teaching

English as a Foreign Language For

Dummies, (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd,

Chichester)

Richards, Jack C and David Nunan

(eds.). 1997. Second Language Teacher

Education. UK: Cambridge University

Press.

Richard, Jack C,; Platt, John; dan Platt,

Heidi. 1993. Longman Dictionary of

Language Teaching and Applied

Linguistics. England: Longman.

Schiffrin , Deborah.1994. Approaches

to Discourse. Cambridge, MA &

Oxford : Blackwell

Searle. 1969. Speech Acts. Oxford :

Oxford Univ. Press

Searle, John R. 1985. Speech Acts, An

Essay in The Philosophy of Language.

London: Cambridge University Press.

Thornbury, Scott. 2005. How to Teach

Speaking. Harlow. Longman

Trosborg, Anna. 1994.Interlanguage

Pragmatics: Requests, Complaints and

Apologies.Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter

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